Superman and me

10

INTRODUCTION FOR STUDENTS

(your thesis) changing or your argument taking a different course, go back to your notes or outline and modify accordingly.

When you get to the revision stage, when you think you might be focusing o n correctness and style, you may find not only that you need to rewrite what you wrote in the drafting stage but also that you need to rethink the ideas you came up with during the prewriting stage. While smoothing out the transitions between your paragraphs, you may find they are rough because the connections among your ideas are also rough, and so you will need to smooth out your ideas before you can smooth out your expression of them.

This may all sound daunting. It shouldn't. Thinking about writing as a recursive process-one in which you loop back to the starting point as you revise and build on your work-means you don't have to try to get everything perfect the first time. It allows you to get your ideas down on paper as they come to you because you know you can always go back and change them. It allows you to think critically about your work because it never feels like it's too late t o improve any aspect of it. Read as a writer reads-critically, actively-and write as a writer writes-in stages, recursively-and pretty soon (that is, before you even know it) you will be a thoughtful, fluid writer who enjoys practicing her craft.

There is no complicated mathematical formula to explain the interrelation of critical reading, creative brainstorming, careful revision, and all of the other elements that are part of what makes good writing, but the basic arithmetic-reading + hard work = good writing-holds up. I hope that you enjoy reading the essays in this book, and that you find that they help you with your writing. If you have thoughts about any of the essays or the ideas about reading and writing, I'd love to hear them. E-mail your questions or suggestions to composition@bedfordstmartins.com or mail them to 50 Essays, BedfordiSt. Martin's, 75 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116.

SHERMAN ALEXIE

The Joy of Reading and

Writing: Superman and . Me

Born in 1966 and raised on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington, Sherman Alexie is one of the foremost Native American writers. He is best known for his fiction, from his first collection of stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistlight in Heaven (19931, which won the PENIHemingway Award for Best First Book o f Fiction, to two novels, Reservation Blues (1995) and Indian Killer (1996). He has also written eleven books of poems, including "The Business of Fancydancing" (1991) and his latest, Dangerous Astronomy (2005); screenplays, incl~rdingthat for the movie Smoke Signals (1999), with Chvir Eyre; and an album, with Jim Boyd, made ofsongs from the book Reservation Blues.

"The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me" displays Alexie's characteristic mix of popular culture reference and rdection on what it means to be an Indian in today's America. As you read, note how carefully Alexie craps what at first glance might seem to be a slight essay. Note especially rhe way images and phrases are repeated and the effect he constructs fowr these repetitions.

I learned to read with a Superman comic book. Simple enough, I suppose. I cannot recall which particular Superman comic book I read, nor can I remember which villain he fought in that issue. I cannot remember the plot, nor the means by which I obtained the comic book. What I can remember is this: I was 3 years old, a Spokane Indian boy living with his family on the Spokane Indian Reservation in eastern Washington state. We were poor by most standards, but one of my parents usually managed to.find some minimum-wage job or another, which made us middle-class by reservation standards. I had a brother and three sisters. We lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government surplus food.

12

SHERMAN ALEXIE

My father, who is one of the few Indians who went to Catholic school on purpose, was an avid reader of westerns, spy thrillers, murder mysteries, gangster epics, basketball player biographies, and anything else he could find. He bought his books by the pound at Dutch's Pawn Shop, Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Value Village. When he had extra money, he bought new novels at supermarkets, convenience stores, and hospital gift shops. Our house was filled with books. They were stacked in crazy piles in the bathroom, bedrooms, and living room. In a fit of unemploymentinspired creative energy, my father built a set of bookshelves and soon fitled them with a random assortment of books about the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, the Vietnam War, and the entire 23-hook series of the Apache westerns. My father loved books, and since I loved my Father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well.

I can remember picking up my father's books before I could read. The words themselves were mostly foreign, but I still remember the exact moment when I first understood, with a sudden clarity, the purpose of a paragraph. I didn't have the vocahulary to say "paragraph," but 1 realized that a paragraph was a fence that held words. The words inside a paragraph worked together for a common purpose. They had some specific reason for being inside the same fence. This knowledge delighted me. I began to think of everything in terms of paragraphs. Our reservation was a small paragraph within the United States. My family's house was a paragraph, distinct from the other paragraphs of the LeBrets to the north, the Fords to our South, and the Tribal School to the west. Inside our house, each family member existed as a separate paragraph but still had genetics and common experiences to link us. Now, using this logic, I can see my changed family as an essay of seven paragraphs: mother, father, older brother, the deceased sister, my younger twin sisters, and our adopted little brother.

At the same time I was seeing the world in paragraphs, I also picked up that Superman comic book. Each panel, complete with picture, dialogue, and narrative was a three-dimensional paragraph. In one panel, Superman breaks through a door. His suit is red, blue, and yellow. The brown door shatters into many pieces. I look at the narrative above the picture. I cannot read the words, b u t I assume it tells me that "Superman is breaking down the

THE JOY OF READING AND WRITING: SUPERMAN AND ME

13

door." Aloud, I pretend to read the words and say, "Superman is breaking down the door." Words, dialogue, also float out of Superman's mouth. Because he is breaking down the door, I assume he says, "I am breaking down the door." Once again, I pretend to read the words and say aloud, "I am breaking down the door." In this way, I learned to-read.

This might be an interesting story all by itself. A little Indian s boy teaches himself to read at an early age and advances quickly.

He reads "Grapes of Wrath in kindergarten when other children are struggling through "Dick and Jane." If he'd been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity. He grows into a man who often speaks of his childhood in the third person, as if it will somehow dull the pain and make him sound more modest about his talents.

A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by lndians and non-Indians alike. I fought with my classmates on a daily basis. They wanted me to stay quiet when the non-Indian teacher asked for answers, for volunteers, .for help. We were Indian children who were expected to be stupid.

Most lived up to those expectations inside the classroom but subverted them on the outside. They struggled with basic reading in school but could remember how to sing a few dozen powwow songs. They were monosyllabic in front of theirnon-Indian teachers but could tell complicated stories and jokes at the dinner table. They submissively ducked their heads when confronted by a non-Indian adult but would slug it out with the Indian bully who was 10 years older. As Indian children, we were expected to fail in the nowIndian world. Those who failed were ceremonially accepted by other Indians and appropriately pitied by nonIndians.

I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky. I read books late into the night, until I could barely keep my eyes open. I read books at recess, then during lunch, and in the few minutes left after I had finished my classroom assignments. I read books in the car when my family traveled to powwows or basketball games. In shopping malls, I ran to the bookstores and read bits and pieces of as many books as I could. I read the books my father brought home from the pawnshops and secondhand. I

THE JOY OF READING AND WRITING: SUPERMAN AND ME

read the books I borrowed from the library. I read the backs of cereal boxes. I read the newspaper. I read the bulletins posted on the walls of the school, the clinic, the tribal offices, the post office.

I read junk mail. I read auto-repair manuals. I read magazines. I read anything that had words and paragraphs. I read with equal parts joy and desperation. I loved those books, but I also knew that love had only one purpose. I was trying to save my life.

Despite all the books I read, I am still surprised I became a writer. I was going to be a pediatrician. These days, I write novels, short stories, and poems. I visit schools and teach creative writing to Indian kids. In all my years in the reservation school system, I was never taught how to write poetry, short stories, or novels. I was certainly never taught that Indians wrote poetry, short stories, and novels. Writing was something beyond Indians. I cannot recall a single time that a guest teacher visited the reservation.

There must have been visiting teachers. Who were they? Where are they now? Do they exist? I visit the schools as often as possible. The Indian kids crowd the classroom. Many are writing their own poems, short stories, and novels. They have read my books. They have read many other books. They look at me with bright eyes and arrogant wonder. They are trying to save their lives. Then there are the sullen and already defeated Indian kids who sit in the back rows and ignore me with theatrical precision.

The pages of their notebooks are empty They cany neither pencil nor pen. They stare out the window. They refuse and resist.

"Books," I say to them. "Books," I say. I throw my weight against their locked doors. The door holds. I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives.

For Discussion and Writing 1. What is Superman doing in the comic book panel Alexie remembers?

Why is it important to remember this detail at the very end of the essay?

2. In paragraph 7, Alexie repeats a certain verb fourteen times. What is this verb, and what effect does this repetition have? What might Alexie be trying to say about the pmcess of his coming to literacy, in terms of both the effort required and the height of the obstacles encountered (or, given the metaphor introduced in paragraph 4, the thickness of the doors that must be broken through)?

15

3. In "Learning to Read and Write" (p. 144), Frederick Douglass writes,

"In moments of agony, I envied my fellow slaves for their stupidity" (par. 6). Compare this sentiment to Alexie's feelings about his fellow classmates on the reservation (par. 6). Do you think that Alexie envied his classmates? Why, or why not? How were his difficulties different from those faced by other Indians?

4. In paragraph 5, Alexie %.ritesabout himself in the third person, in effect dramatizing what happens %hen one writes the story of one's life. Using the third person, write about a particularly important moment or aspect of your life. Aherward, \wire a short reflection on the distancing effect of referring to yourself as "he" or "she." How does this type of writing help you learn about yourself?